Wandering Child
by AmandaKK
Summary: Lacey knew she wasn't supposed to take the shortcut through the abandoned construction site. But she did. And she stumbles across the Time Matrix by accident. Her life is abruptly turned upside-down when she is given the ability to morph, discovers her mother is Visser Seven, and starts to fall in love with an alien...
1. Chapter 1- Lacey

**Hey, it's AmandaKK! This is my first attempt at a fanfic like this, so don't kill me, alright? I hope you enjoy, please review, and eat some chocolate. Just do it. It will make you happier, and I want you to be in a good mood while you're reading this. Now, on to the fanfiction! Or, as Marco best puts it- Cassie, to the bat morph! 8D**

Chapter 1.

_Lacey_

I don't know why I did it.

My parents had told me a million times not to take the shortcut through the abandoned construction site. There were drunkards and homeless people that hung around there. They said I could get hurt. They said I could get kidnapped. Killed. But I didn't listen. I was always up for an adventure. I almost _wanted_ somebody to attack me.

But besides, it was getting dark, and I needed to be home soon. I had gone to the mall after school with my best friend, Teresa, and I had to take the shortcut through the abandoned construction site if I had any hope of being home in time for supper.

I kept a close eye out for anything suspicious. I didn't see anyone as I weaved through the crumbling, decaying stonewalls and half-finished buildings.

Then, I tripped on a rock jutting out of the dirt. I let out a cry of surprise as I fell on my face, unable to catch myself with my hands.

I groaned in pain, and looked over the scrapes on my bare arms and legs. I felt something hot and sticky running down my face. I put two fingers up to my cheek, and when I pulled my hand away, they were dripping with fresh blood. I sighed and wiped under my right eye with the back of my hand.

As I pushed myself up from the ground with my sore, dirt-covered hands, something barely sticking out of the ground caught my eye. What I could see of it was smooth and white. Aside from a bit of dirt, it looked kind of shiny.

I started to dig the thing out, and when my treasure was unearthed, it was a six-foot tall, off-white sphere. I looked at it for a solid minute. I didn't know what the hell it was.

I was debating what to do with this thing, when I noticed a boy no bigger than my twin brother watching me intently from the far side of the construction site. I didn't recognize him from school, but then again, I wasn't exactly Miss Popularity.

I decided I would rebury my treasure, and come back for it the next day, since it was a Saturday.

On my way out of the abandoned construction site, I caught sight of the boy ducking behind a stonewall, and out of sight.

I thought about my treasure on the way home. I had no idea what it was, but something told me I was in for a hell of an adventure.

Was I ever right.

**Yay! Chapter one= mission completion! Don't you worry your pretty little heads- the next chapter will be longer. :) Please review. I will give you a cookie and a hug! I accept constructive criticism, and feel free to make suggestions, because I have a rough idea of what the story's gonna be like, but I'm not sure how I wanna get there. Goodbye, and I will see you again for Chapter 2!**


	2. Chapter 2- Marco

**Okay, so apparently some parts of the first chapter didn't make a whole lot of sense, so I hope this one will be better. Thanks, Chiroptera Jones for the review, it helped! :) Now, enjoy!**

**P.S.- I do not own Animorphs!**

* * *

Chapter 2.

_Marco_

I knew there was trouble when Jake said, "We have news from the Chee."

I groaned. "Why can't the Chee ever give us good news, like 'Congratulations, you just won the lottery!' Or, even better, 'The Andalites have just wipe out all the Yeerks.' But, no…"

Jake sighed. Rachel kicked me in the shin. I kicked her back. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit a girl?" she said smugly.

My eyes flashed with fire at the thought of my mom, Visser One. Rachel looked away, as she realized what she had said.

Jake broke up our argument. "Erek says somebody's found the Time Matrix." That stopped us all. Rachel and I turned our gazes to him. Cassie turned from where she was giving a raccoon its medicine. Tobias stirred up in the rafters. Ax fixed all four eyes on Jake.

"Who found it?" Cassie finally asked.

Jake shrugged. "Erek's not sure. He said he saw a girl dig up the Time Matrix at the abandoned construction site. He doesn't think she's a Controller, though."

{What did she do with it?} Tobias asked.

"Reburied it, apparently," Jake replied.

"We should go down there and check it out," Cassie said.

I could already predict what Rachel was going to say next.

"Let's do it!" she chimed in.

"How did I know…" I muttered. Rachel gave me a smirk.

"Alright," Jake said. "Sounds like a plan. Cassie? You finished with that… whatever that animal is?"

Cassie nodded. "Yes."

"Okay. Then let's get going."

* * *

We flew to the construction site in bird of prey morph. When we got there, we landed and demorphed inside a half-finished building. All except for Tobias. Then, Ax morphed to human.

We found the place where the girl had put the Time Matrix back in the ground, and waited, crouched behind a stone wall. Within ten minutes of our arrival, a girl appeared, creeping through the abandoned construction site, caring a shovel- presumably to dig out the Time Matrix. She looked our age, and was a little bit shorter than Rachel. She had dark-brown, almost black ringlets that flowed down her back and over her shoulders. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of amber, almost a gold, like honey, but with a hint a brown. Her porcelain skin seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, a pale with her cheeks flushed pink from the heat. I noticed that she had a cut under her right eye.

"Earth to Marco," Rachel said, waving her hand in front of my face. "You're staring at a part of that girl you really shouldn't be staring at."

I blinked, then glared at Rachel. "Am not! Besides, at least she's not dressed like a whore," I said, eying Rachel's apparel.

"I will slap those freckles right off your face," she growled, through gritted teeth.

I flashed her a smile. "I will do the same to you."

"Bastard," Rachel grumbled. I grinned, turning my attention back to the girl who was now drawing nearer to the Time Matrix. A smile pulled at her lips, as she came closer. I watched, as she dug the powerful thing out of the ground. Being as big as it was, it took a little while. I waited for Jake to say something, tell us what to do. After what seemed like an eternity, he whispered, "Marco, maybe you should go talk to her."

I whipped around. "Me? Why?" I all but squeaked.

Rachel smirked. "You seem to like her already."

I fumed. Now I would have to go. "You are grating on my last nerve, woman," I said, standing up and stepping out from behind the half-built wall. I took a few steps closer to the girl, who had her back to me, busy inspecting the Time Matrix.

"Hey," I said. She whirled around. "Oh… hi. Marco, right?" She smiled at my suspicious gaze. Her teeth were perfect and white. "You're in my math class. You're always getting in trouble for falling asleep. And then there was that time when you were listening to music, and you had your hair hiding the headphones. It almost worked- but then you started singing along!" The girl laughed. It was a musical sound.

"I'm Lacey," she said.

"What do you have there?" I asked, peering innocently around her at the Time Matrix.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. I found it last night." Lacey stepped back to it, and ran the tips of her fingers over the smooth, off-white surface. "Pretty, though, huh?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah." _And you won't be keeping it…_

* * *

**Hey, so Marco's got a bit of OOC, that's not my fault! (Actually, it is, but, hey, what the heck?) I hope to see you back for Chapter 3- Ax is narrating! I just love Ax, don't you? He's so funny! XD**


	3. Chapter 3- Ax

**Hi! Chapter 3, let's do this! I apologize ahead of time for how crappy the chapter is, 'cause the other ones aren't that great, either. Please enjoy, though! **

**I don't own Animorphs or anything else like that! :)**

Chapter 3.

_Ax_

Prince Jake was lost in thought, as we watched Marco and this 'Lacey'. I am still working on reading human facial expressions, but I had the impression he was forming a plan. My thoughts were confirmed when he turned his head to the red-tailed hawk at his side and said, "Tobias, tell Marco to come back here for a minute, and to have Lacey stay there." Tobias relayed the message in thought-speak, so that Lacey couldn't hear.

A few minutes later, Marco had joined us in our hiding place. "What's the deal?" he whispered.

"Okay," Prince Jake said in an equally low tone. We were several yards away from Lacey and the Time Matrix, but we didn't want to risk her hearing us. "I don't think Lacey's a Controller, but we have to be completely sure. Ax?"

I felt a smile curl at my human lips. "You would like me to go out there, and see what she makes of me?"

Prince Jake nodded. "If she knows what you are, she's a Controller, and we get the Time Matrix, and get the hell out of here. If she isn't one of the Yeerks… we'll have to find a way to explain this to her."

"Why don't we just morph, grab the Time Matrix, and go?" Rachel asked.

Prince Jake sighed. I could tell there was more to his plan then he was saying.

I chose that moment to begin demorphing to Andalite. I heard the stalk eyes sprout out of my head first. Then, two extra legs began to grow out of my human chest. Then skin on my body turned blue, and extra fingers grew on each of my hands. Finally, when the process was complete, I crept out from behind the stone wall.

Lacey didn't see me until I was less than ten feet behind her. Her eyes widened in shock, as she turned and took in my strange, alien form. Her eyes seemed to be focused mainly on my tail. She took a step back, but was blocked by the Time Matrix.

"Who are you?" Lacey asked, clearly shocked. "Marco? Is this some kind of joke?"

{My name is Aximilli-Esgarouth-Isthill,} I said. {I assume you do not know what I am?}

"Damn right, I don't."

{I will take that as a 'no'.}

"Is this for real?" Lacey asked, more to herself then to me. She reached out and touched my arm. "No, aliens aren't real…" she muttered.

{I am very much real,} I said.

The human girl sighed. "Marco, you've got a hell of a lot of explaining to do."

* * *

We had returned to Cassie's barn. Tobias and I had flown, and my human friends, along with Lacey, had taken a 'bus'. It is a sort of long automobile in which human pay to ride place to place. We had hidden the Time Matrix carefully, so that nobody else would find it.

It had taken Prince Jake about twenty minutes to explain to Lacey about the Yeerk invasion, the Andalites, and about the Animorphs. She looked shocked, but she seemed to have no trouble believing all the strange things we told her.

"I can't believe it," she said when we were through, and she completely understood our situation. "Wow…"

Marco looked suspiciously at Lacey. "What? And you're just going to believe it? Just like that? No comments, questions, concerns? Why do you just trust that aliens are invading the earth?"

Lacey's lips turned up in a smile. "Your friend Ax looks like very solid proof that aliens exist." She turned her sparkling human eyes on me.

I looked at my friends with all four eyes, fixing them with an Andalite smile. {I am very convincing.}

Rachel glared at Marco. "An Andalite was proof enough for us, wasn't it?"

Prince Jake sighed. I looked away at the mention of my brother. I busied myself having a staring contest with an eagle on the other side of the room. Marco had taught me about that. From what I could tell, I think I was winning.

"Okay," Lacey said, breaking my concentration. I blinked, and looked away from the animal. _We'll finish this later,_ I thought to myself.

Lacey continued. "Why do you want me to know all this, anyway, if it's so secret and dangerous?"

Prince Jake sighed again, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, what you found in the construction site… it's a very powerful weapon, the Time Matrix." He told Lacey about the Time Matrix, even about the time Visser Four found it. He left out how we had gone back in time, and caused John Berryman's parents to not meet, and caused him to never be born.

Prince Jake looked straight at Lacey. "If we just took the Time Matrix, if you were a Controller or not, the Yeerks would find out somehow. It wouldn't be great if they knew we had the Matrix. They would be trying to get us even harder. Obviously, we don't need that…"

Lacey nodded. "I see. So, what, do you have to kill me now so I can't ever become a Controller?" There was no human sarcasm in her voice.

"No," Prince Jake said, as Cassie shot him a worried glance. "We're going to make you one of us."

"No!" Rachel cried. "What if she turns out like David?" I could hear the disgust in her voice when she said his name.

Lacey glared at her. "How dare you compare me to that _snake_."

Prince Jake sighed. (He seems to do that quite often.) "Anyone for a vote?"

"I say yes," Cassie said.

Rachel shook her head. "I don't think it's the best idea, Jake."

"For once I'm with Xena," Marco agreed.

{I will follow Prince Jake.}

Cassie looked at Tobias. "What do you say, Tobias?" He thought for a moment. {I say we do it.}

Prince Jake nodded slowly. "Then it's settled. Lacey, you're in."

A small smile formed on Lacey's lips. "Alright, then. When do I start?"

"We need to get the morphing cube," Prince Jake replied.

"I'll get it," Cassie offered.

In a few minutes, she returned with the Escafil Device. Lacey eyed the smooth, blue cube carefully. Cassie handed it to Prince Jake.

Within minutes, Lacey was an Animorph.

* * *

**Well, there you go! See, I'm not the best at writing from an alien's perspective, let alone Ax's, but deal with it. :) Review, please? Thanks!**


	4. Chapter 4- Lacey

**Hey, it's a new chapter! It's really short, sorry, but I'll have a new one soon! Now, I'll let you read, while I deal with Ax. *Turns to Ax* And, if you're a good little Andalite, I'll let you have a cinnamon bun! **

**Ax: Mmmm, yummy cinnamon bunzuh...**

Chapter 4.

_Lacey_

It had been a week since I had met the Animorphs and they had given me the ability to morph. They taught me how to control the animal's instincts, and so far I was pretty good at it. I had morphed a raccoon that Cassie had in her barn (It wasn't a lot of fun to acquire, but it was easy enough to control), my pet cat, a leopard (beautiful creatures, and so amazing and powerful!), a fly (Very disgusting!), a Merlin, a smaller bird of prey, and some other things.

Apparently, the Yeerks were planning something- we just didn't know what. But for the time being, they were quiet enough for us to enjoy a day just hanging around Cassie's barn.

"Lacey?" Ax said, interrupting the discussion Rachel and I were having over the rumors in the latest issue of her favorite magazine.

"Yes, Ax?"

"I have been wanting to ask you something. Some- thing. Ing."

"Go ahead."

"What is kissing?"

Rachel practically fell over laughing. I sighed. I wasn't exactly sure how to explain kissing to an alien. "Well… um… it's when two people put their lips together?" was the best answer I could come up with.

"Since when did you hear about kissing?" Rachel asked.

"Marco talks about it quite frequently. Fre- que- ent. Ly. Ee."

I smiled. "Well, never mind."

"Lacey? Will you teach me to kiss?"

Rachel's laughing fit started up all over again. "Did Marco put you up to this?" she said between laughs.

I marched Ax right over to Jake, where he and Marco were having a heated conversation about superheroes. "Ax wants me to teach him to kiss."

Jake shrugged. "So?"

"What am I supposed to tell him?"

"You can teach him to kiss if you want to."

I groaned. It was a nice, sunny afternoon- one that I should have been spending at the mall with Teresa. But, no, I was having an alien ask me to teach him to kiss! A week ago, if someone had told me I was going to spend my Saturday trying to explain the concept of kissing to an Andalite, I would have sent them to a hospital!

I turned back to Ax. "No, sorry buddy, I will _not_ teach you how to kiss."

"Come on," Marco said. "Do you want Ax to never experience the joy of kissing?"

Rachel snickered. "The joys of kissing, Marco? You've never been kissed!"

Marco smiled deviously. "That will change, soon." He winked at me.

I laughed. "Yeah, no way!"

* * *

**Well, that's all for now! So, who do you think should write the next chapter? It's a tough decision... Bye, and please leave a review! Now, it's off to eat some instant maple and ginger oatmeal and cinnamon bunzuh!**


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